Abstracted Identity: An Exploratory Corpus Analysis of AI’s Impact on Authorial Identity in Academic Writing

Abstract Generative artificial intelligence is increasingly being used for academic writing. However, this is potentially a cause of concern if this is having an impact on how authors express themselves. In this study, I generate two corpora from the abstracts of academic articles in the ‘languages and linguistics’ field, one spanning 2018–2019 and another 2023–2024. To analyse these, I take a descriptive non-inferential corpus design to compare ngram frequency in the pre- and post-AI corpora to identify shifts in words and phrases related to authorial stance. I conclude by arguing that there is a possibility that generative AI is already influencing how abstracts are written, with a small shift away from authorial stance.